PRESS DIGEST – Washington Post – April 11

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) – The Washington Post included the following items on its front page on April 11 Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

WASHINGTON – Senior Obama administration officials are debating how to address a potential terrorist threat to U.S. interests from a Somali extremist group, with some in the military advocating strikes against its training camps. But many officials maintain that uncertainty about the intentions of the al-Shabab organization dictates a more patient, nonmilitary approach.

DALLAS – The U.S. presidency that is remembered on the street where former President George W. Bush now lives bears little resemblance to the one that most of the country continues to blame for its problems. Bush left Washington on Jan. 20 with two-thirds of Americans disapproving of his job performance. In his return to private life, Bush has maintained tranquillity by adhering to a basic philosophy: He lives squarely in the remaining 33 percent.

KABUL – When Afghanistan’s government quietly enacted a sweeping law last month restricting the rights of minority Shiite women, few Afghans were aware of what it said. But since the law’s contents became known here just over a week ago, it has provoked an extraordinary public debate on the once-taboo topic of religion and sex in this conservative Muslim nation and spurred an unprecedented protest by senior officials.

SAFFORD, Ariz. – April Redding was waiting in the parking lot of the middle school when she heard news she could hardly understand: Her 13-year-old daughter, Savana, had been strip-searched by school officials in a futile hunt for drugs. The lawsuit that April and Savana Redding brought over the incident carries the potential for redefining the privacy rights of students and the responsibility of teachers and school officials charged with keeping drugs off their campuses.

WASHINGTON – First, the frogs began disappearing, with as many as 122 species becoming extinct worldwide since 1980. Then honeybee colonies began to collapse. Scientists fear that bats might be next. For the past three years, biologists in Virginia have been nervously watching a strange die-off of bats in the Northeast as a mysterious fungus spread rapidly through hibernating bat colonies.